KineBody Pro

( Background photo credit: Capoeira Enschede aan Zee by archangel 12, on Flickr )

An image or video can be loaded directly from your device. Acceptable image and video formats include:

• images: .jpg, .gif, .webp, .png, .bmp, .svg,
• videos: .mp4, .webm, .ogv

Alternatively, a video can be accessed directly from Youtube, which permits a wide variety of video formats, including:

• youtube videos: .mp4, .webm, .avi, .flv, .wmv, .mov, and others.

Note that images cannot be loaded directly from the internet. To use them, you have to first download them to your device, and from there import them into KineBody Pro.

This page provides instructions for loading an image or video into the viewing area background, as well as instructions for removing the background image or video (further down the page). Related information is provided here: Move or resize a background image or video.

 
Instructions: Loading an Image or Video

Controls for loading images or videos are located in the 'Show' subpanel, on the right of the KineBody Pro window (figure, right).

Instructions for loading vary slightly depending on the source of your background image/video: from your device, or (video) from Youtube.

To do this:	Proceed as follows:
Load an image or video from your device	Click the [ From disk ] button. A file browser window titled ‘Open’ will appear, allowing you to navigate & select an image or video file from your local device.
Load a video from Youtube	Decide which video to load, by browsing the youtube.com website. (Use any browser, or the Youtube app, as browsing directly from KineBody Pro is not currently possible). Copy the URL for the video, or its 11 character Youtube ID (= the part of the URL, following '?v='), for example: URL:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yew8ZfOtf4Y ID:     yew8ZfOtf4Y If present, click the button labeled 'Use Youtube Video': this loads Youtube video player software into KineBody Pro. After clicking it, the button disappears, replaced by a text box containing 'youtube video'. (You only need to do this step once in any given KineBody Pro session. After that, you can skip directly to the next step). Enter the URL or Youtube ID into the 'youtube video' textbox, and press Enter or Return.

Upon successfully loading an image or video into the background, the following changes occur in the KineBody Pro window:

An image or video appears behind KineBody skeleton: The original black background behind the skeleton becomes transparent, allowing you to see the image or video behind the skeleton. The image/video is sized to fit maximally within the viewing area, and centered.

Additional controls appear in the KineBody Pro window, including:

1. In the Show subpanel:
   • The filename of the most recently loaded image or video.
   • A table, labeled 'Background Image/Video Position', containing 3 current values for the position and size of the background image or video.
   • Checkboxes, labeled 'Show' and 'Lock to body', and (for videos only), 'In Front'. (Default states are ☑, ☑, and ☐, respectively; the Show checkbox is reset whenever you load a new background image or video).
   • A button labeled 'Clear'.
   
   Additional information about using these controls can be found by following the respective links above.


2. In the Movement palette (middle left):
   Two buttons with violet-shaded arrow icons appear below the regular movement palette buttons. These buttons set the mode for the KineBody Pro joystick, to reposition and resize the background image or video.


3. In the lower right corner (for videos only):
   • Video playback controls, including a play/pause button, a precision time readout, and 'time step' buttons to move forward or back from the current time.

 
Instructions: Removing an Image or Video

You can temporarily hide the background image or video, or remove it entirely, as follows:

Temporarily hide the background image or video	Uncheck the 'Show' checkbox. Re-check the box to restore the background image/video to visibility.
Remove the background image or video completely (& put away special background controls)	Click the Clear button.

  
Details

Note that the Undo, Redo, UndoAll, and RedoAll buttons do not apply to the operations in the Show subpanel. If you make a mistake, correct it by just manually un-doing the operations described above.

Saving a background image: The background image will NOT be included when you save an image using KineBody Pro's built-in image saving capability. To include the background image, use the snipping tool that comes with your operating system, or a 3rd party screen capture tool.

Similarly, when you save a named pose, as described here, the name of the current background image or video is NOT included. If you want to keep track of the name of the background image you used to create your pose, you may wish to reference it in the pose name; otherwise, record it in an external notes file.

Transparent background: The space around/behind the KineBody skeleton changes from black to transparent automatically, when you load an image or video. This is corroborated by a check mark in the 'Transparent background' checkbox (above the [From Disk] button). However, when you unload the image or video (using the Clear button), the background doesn't revert to black, but remains transparent, and appears white. To reinstate the black background, uncheck the 'Transparent background' checkbox.

Note that when the space around the skeleton is 'transparent', your interactions with the viewing area (hovering, clicking/tapping, dragging) will work the same as when the black background is present: you can identify bones, move the body, and (with a PoseTools subscription), select & move joints. Conversely, none of those 'foreground' actions will be applied to the background image or video (except for positioning & resizing the video, as described here). Most importantly, if the background element is a video, you can't use the playback controls that are included with the video. Instead, KineBody Pro provides its own set of playback controls. It also provides an 'InFront' mode, where you can move the background video into the foreground, thereby making its controls available. The InFront mode is intended to be used only for occasional use, because it prevents normal interactions with the KineBody viewing area. For further information, please see Navigating Background Videos.